Kerr: "I was proud of the guys for their effort."

10 April 2017

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Academy coach, Dylan Kerr, says that his team will learn a lot from the 1-4 home defeat to Rotherham United on Saturday.

The Spireites fielded a team of this season’s first-year scholars as well as the current U16s who’ll be making the step up next season, while there were even four of the club’s U15s in the match day squad.

Kerr said: “We started off really well; Rotherham brought a strong team with them featuring 18-year-old scholars which we knew they would.

“Our side included a lot of the first year scholars and we also had four U15s playing.

“We matched them for the first 20 minutes and then we gave them a soft goal, after we tried to play out from the back – which is something we’re trying to encourage, but the lads have got to know that they can mistakes if they do it and have to learn from it.

“The second goal was down to poor marking, while the third was from our centre halves being split by a long ball.

“While the fourth goal you can accept as they reacted quicker to a corner, the lad swung a leg at it and it went under Dylan Parkin in a crowded area.”

Despite the heavy score line, Kerr felt that his team more than matched the Millers, and had luck been with them, could have more to show for their efforts rather than just Conor Fowler’s penalty.

“We should have been 2-0 up in the first ten minutes, Joel Phillips and Ricky German had two good chances,” he commented.

“In the second half we’ve missed three good chances from just outside the goal and even when we went 3-0 down we still had good chances to score to get back into the game.

“I was proud of the guys for their effort, but they were their own worst enemy, we gave them three goals.

“It’s going to be a learning curve for all of the young scholars and for the U15s who’ve played for us well.”